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Procrastination As Part of Your Project & Progress

Many of you are called to inspire, uplift, and entertain. You are healers, teachers, writers, artists. You may be an activist, a poet, an actor of any gender, a community leader, a director of a nonprofit organisation that focuses on a lifelong vision of yours... You are on a divine mission and life purpose to make a big change in your region, or in the world.

You want to help other people feel, live, and do better. You want to do those things yourself, and perhaps you share with others your struggle and challenges, and most importantly, how you got or get through those tough times.

People who are here to do big things feel big pain, too. Most of that pain comes from fear of success, fear of failure, fear of being happy, productive, loved. Fear of being healthy.

Maybe you were abused growing up, or maybe you struggle with an addiction (or three)! You don't know how to love yourself well enough and you don't know how to feel good for more than three seconds at a time. Maybe you know how to feel good for a short while, but you're deathly afraid that proverbial and always present other shoe is going to drop.

One of the ways we act on our fears is by procrastinating. If we procrastinate then we don't have to think about doing the work we came here to do. Then we don't have to face success, or be happy, to only then lose those good feelings and circumstances when that other shoe drops.

Well, the goal shouldn't be to try to stop procrastinating for good. That'll never happen. We can best manage and reduce procrastinating by radically accepting and then loving our habits.

Watching too many episodes of Judge Judy when you should be finishing your application for that arts grant? Love yourself and accept your procrastination.

Next time you procrastinate, do this:

a)Tell yourself that you are definitely going to finish the project, with or without procrastination. See yourself doing so. Know that it will be done!

b)Remember all the projects you did finish and notice how each one of those successes also contained periods of procrastination!

c)Enjoy the procrastinating task. Watching too much YouTube or hanging on The Facebooks too long? Get up and get yourself a cup of tea, then return to really enjoy and savor that procrastination task. You've already told and reassured yourself that you WILL complete the project, and you know you'll stop procrastinating eventually.

d)Keep focusing on loving yourself. You're the only you you have, and if it's too hard to be nice to yourself outright, start practicing by treating yourself as you would a beloved child or other persun in your life you get along with very easily and care for deeply.

Your being gentle with yourself will get you more progress, reach out and positively impact others, and ultimately grow more kindness and peace in the world.

Remember, procrastination IS part of your project, and your overall progress. Embrace it!

Cassendre Xavier is a $15,000 Leeway Transformation Award-winning self-described “multi-media healing artist” who writes, records music and guided meditations, and creates community cultural arts events. She has written for Wisdom Magazine’s webzine since 2009. Visit Cassendre at http://cassEndrExavier.com.